The Northview High School boys basketball program that legendary coach Ron Rice built during 41 years at the school before retiring in 2013 is barely recognizable and about to bottom out.

The Vikings are 0-22 and on the verge of suffering the first winless season in school history.

“To put over 40 years into building that thing up, it’s difficult to watch because it’s something you took a lot of pride in,” said Rice, who recently welcomed his 12th grandchild and is enjoying retirement in Laguna Nigel. “To watch it deteriorate is tough, I have to be honest.”

Rice started at Northview as an assistant in 1969, became the head coach in 1971 and remained there until 2013.

He finished with 579 victories, and during his last 10 years the Vikings won or shared the Valle Vista League title seven times, including the Vikings’ last co-league title in 2011-12, when they finished 21-9, which was the school’s last winning season.

When Rice was ready to retire, he figured his son Brian Rice, a social studies teacher at the school, would take over the program and continue the legacy.

Brian Rice had been his top assistant for more than a decade and it only seemed natural to many observers that the son would follow his legendary dad.

But shockingly, the school decided instead to hire walk-on coach Eric Johnson, who had been the junior varsity coach.

It was a tough pill for Ron and Brian Rice to swallow at the time. After all, who in this day and age hires a walk-on when you have an on-campus coach available?

For whatever reason, the first-year principal at the time, Dr. Josie Paredes, decided to go in a different direction.

At the time, even athletic director David Ochoa supported it.

“I’ve been here 24 years and I’m behind her (Paredes) decision,” Ochoa said at the time. “I think she’s a good person, and it wasn’t an easy decision for her, but it’s her decision. There’s just a difference in philosophy.”

Ron Rice couldn’t believe it.

“Mark Sims, the principal before (Paredes), said it was cut and dry Brian would be the coach when I left,” Ron Rice said back in 2013. “Those were his wishes. He told me to coach as long as I liked and when you’re ready to make the switch, make the switch. It always seemed like the natural thing to do. (Brian’s) here, he teaches here and he’s been doing this with me for a long time.”

Paredes is no longer the principal at Northview, but her decision back then rattled the cages and the Vikings program has never recovered.

Brian Rice and his dad Ron Rice coaching during their final season in 2012-13.

It took a while for Ron Rice to get over it, although he has since mended fences with the school and is on its newly formed Hall of Fame committee.

Brian Rice has moved on too. He still teaches at the school and coaches boys and girls tennis, but probably wouldn’t take the basketball job even if it was offered to him now.

“What happened, happened,” Ron Rice said. “I’m not going to be critical of it anymore. I’m back involved with the school and I hope they can figure it out.

“I’m on the Hall of Fame committee and excited about that. They’ve got a new administration at Northview so it was time to just move on. I have a lot of great memories there. I spent four decades at Northview and it was a big part of my life and I wish them nothing but the best and hope they can turn it (basketball program) around.”

But to this day, it was a baffling decision to hire a walk-on coach over the son of the legendary coach, and who knows when the program will recover.

Johnson spent four years at Northview and never won more than nine games in a season, finishing 34-70 overall.

Ochoa was critical of Johnson’s four-year tenure.

“When he (Johnson) quit, he didn’t talk to anybody,” Ochoa said. “He didn’t tell the kids, didn’t have a banquet, didn’t have spring ball. And then we started losing basketball players to other schools, like Covina.”

Northview hired Chris Confair to take over last year, but the team went 5-23 and is winless this season.

Since Rice’s retirement, Northview is a combined 39-115 in six seasons.

Ochoa says Confair works his butt off, but the talent just isn’t there, and changes are likely to come.

“It’s not his (Confair’s) fault,” Ochoa said. “When Johnson left, we completely lost any semblance of a program. By the time we hired (Confair) any kid who had considered playing basketball was enrolling or transferring to Covina or somewhere else.”

Northview’s team has three freshmen and four sophomores, but Ochoa acknowledges the problems go beyond being a young team.

Ochoa said he will sit down with Confair after the season to discuss the situation, but eventually, he believes they have to find an on-campus coach.

“We will get it done, we’re going to turn this thing around, and we’re going to make a commitment to this program and get it rolling again,” Ochoa said confidently. “We tried to hire an on-campus coach (in recent years), but it just didn’t work out.

“But we know something has to change. We just don’t have any basketball-type kids in our program right now. We’re basically playing a frosh-soph team that is young and playing their heart out, and our coach is working hard and doing all he can, but this isn’t working and we realize that.”

Ron Rice said an on-campus coach would be a good start.

“You have to be at the school and around the kids,” Rice said. “We were never a school that recruited kids or got big transfers, but you have to convince kids that come to your school, or who are coming to your school, that you know what you’re doing and that you can coach them. You have to get the best athletes at your school to play, even though that is getting tougher with specialization.

“But at the end of the day, it’s still coaching. I thought we coached our teams up as well as anyone, and a lot of that has to do with being there, being around the kids and building something with them.”

Rice, 73, said traveling and spending time with his 12 grandchildren keep him busy, but a scare he had four years ago is why he takes nothing for granted, or holds any hard feelings.

“I had some cancer four years ago with my saliva gland in my upper cheek,” Rice said. “I went through eight weeks of radiation and now they (doctors) check on me every four months or so. But for the last four years, I’ve been cancer free.”

And if you think he’s done coaching, not completely.

“I’m helping my oldest son Steve coach one of my grandkids in an 11-year-old youth league,” Rice said. “It’s so much fun, it takes you back to the beginning of it all. That’s what it’s all about now, my family and my grandkids. They keep you busy, that’s for sure.”

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